The prior art discloses a whole series of implants with which it is attempted to correct axial misalignment in children and adolescents before completion of the growth phase (for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,133,230 B2, 8,029,507 B2). These have the disadvantage of being composed of a large number of parts and of entailing high production costs. Moreover, the bulky connection parts, designed like joints, and the corresponding screws cause increased trauma to the patient during the implantation.
Moreover, rigid bone staples are known for guiding the bone growth at the epiphyseal plate (Blount staples), these having two parallel anchoring limbs connected to each other by a common rectilinear transverse web (EP 0 033 641 B1, EP 0 127 994 B1, EP 0 586 313 B1, EP 0 852 128 B1, DE 33 10 833 C2, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,246,443 A, 5,449,359 A, WO 2004/107991 A1). These staples are primarily used in temporary epiphyseodesis, in which at least two staples are applied transversely, and parallel to each other, to the epiphyseal plate under X-ray monitoring, the aim being to block the growth thereof locally in the area of the staple.
Although these known staples permit inhibition of growth by exerting compression on the bone regions lying opposite each other, they do not allow simultaneous bending open of the transverse web of the staples in order to deliberately promote the growth at the epiphyseal plate lying opposite the staple region.